Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

Effect of sowing depth on emergence and crop establishment of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.)

Author(s):

Kęstutis Romaneckas ^1*, Vytautas Pilipavičius ¹, Egidijus Šarauskis ², Antanas Sakalauskas ²

Recieved Date: 2009-01-17, Accepted Date: 2009-04-16

Abstract:

In 2007 pot and field trials were fulfilled with the silty loam Luvisol at the Department of Soil Management and Experimental Station of Lithuanian University of Agriculture. The aim of investigations was to determine the effect of sugar beet sowing depth on sugar beet seed germination, seedling establishment, yield and quality of roots. In the pot trial sugar beet seeds were incorporated at the depth of 0-6 cm (D0-D6). The depth of 3 cm was control treatment. In the field trial seeds were sown at 2.1-3.0 (shallow, SH) (control treatment), 3.1-4.0 (moderate, MO) and 4.1-5.0 (deep, DE) cm depths. According to the results of the pot experiment, there were not observed significant differences of 0-5 cm sown seed final germination and height of seedlings compared with control treatment (D3). However, deeper sown seeds emerged later. The germination of deeply (6 cm) sown seeds was 44.2% and was significantly less than sown in 0-5 cm depths. The increase of the sowing depth up to 4-6 cm had negative significant influence on mass of seedlings. In the field experiment the increase of sowing depth from 2.1 to 5.0 cm had significant negative influence on seed germination, crop density and fanging of root-crop. However, when the weather in spring was dry the highest yield of root-crop was of deeper-sown (4.1-5.0 cm) sugar beets. The results of root-crop quality showed the influence of sowing depth increase on significantly higher amount of potassium and less amount of alpha amino nitrogen.

Keywords:

Sugar beet, sowing depth, germination, crop establishment, yield, quality

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Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2009
Volume: 7
Issue: 2
Category: Agriculture
Pages: 571-575

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